


Somewhere Only We Know

by FrozenHearts



Category: Aquaman (2018), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League (2017), Man of Steel (2013), Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Cheering Up Friends, Coping, Crying, Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Loss, Lost Love, Major character death - Freeform, Post-Canon, Sad, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, War, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 06:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11098713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenHearts/pseuds/FrozenHearts
Summary: The League thinks Diana is so stricken due to losing Clark.They learn that she is actually greiving for a man named Steve.





	Somewhere Only We Know

**Author's Note:**

> Wonder Woman is my new favorite movie and you need to try prying the Steve x Diana ship from my cold dead hands I will go down with this ship

Bruce thought he was helping when he gave Diana the original copy of her and her friends back in Velv. She expressed her gratitude, but Bruce could sense the longing nostalgia under her words.

They watched away from the crowds as Martha and Lois lowered Clark's coffin into the ground. The skies were overcast, hanging gray as Martha sobbed for her only son. Lois for her first and true love, sifting a pile of dirt through her fingers into the grave.

"They don't know how to honor him," Diana said suddenly, her words biting as the procession weedled down to no one. The grave stood proud and tall. Rather empty as well, being placed well away from the rest, a gate letting the monument stand alone.

Birds dare not go near it, as if sensing its importance. The hope it stood for.

"I'm sorry?" Bruce raised an eyebrow, shifting to catch the hardened expression in her eye.

"They don't know how to honor him except as a soldier," Diana said. 

Bruce pursed his lips, "They see him as a symbol. A friend and first love."

Diana shook her head. Her gaze was fixed steadily on the monument, on Martha and Lois as they walked hand in hand towards the gate of the cemetery. Lois's red hair was like fire against the gray skies. A beacon, just as Clark once was.

What Clark still is.

Bruce wondered, looking at Diana's anger torn face, how her eyes fumed with anger over.... something.

He wanted to inquire what that something was, but knew he probably shouldn't pry- as old as Diana was, some things were better left untouched.

\---------

Arthur found Diana one day standing atop a cliff near the Hawaiian islands. The waters were roiling, calling for release as he rode the waves to stand by her side. The wind pulled at her long dark hair, and Arthur thought he could see the barest traces of tears on her face.

"Diana?" Arthur cleared his throat. Diana did not move, did not look at him.

"The water is just as blue as it is back home," Diana commented, "so clear and...."

"Beautiful?" Arthur filled in for her.

The Amazonian shrugged, "No. Deadly is a more fitting term, I believe."

Huh. Never a term Arthur would use to describe his home. Thd coral reefs made it bright and colorful, the schools a plethora of fins and gills and pearls that glinted at the bottom of the ocean.

He remembered giving Mera a necklace strung from oyster pearls on their wedding day. Diana's earrings were just as beautiful.

Arthur dared to ask, "How so?"

Diana shrugged again, "The waters have aided in shedding much blood from my people. Brave warriors who were cut down on the battlefield. Women who loved to smell the flowers and weave leather into their braids."

"They sound admirable."

"They were. Then the Germans came. Steve came and..."

Steve? He had never heard of a man by this name. In Barry's comics, those "Captain America" things he likes so much. He doubted Diana would be talking about a fictional character. But Diana did not elaborate, instead pressing her fingers to her temples, sniffing and shuddering as she glared at the waters below.

The crinkles around her eyes made her five thousand years suddenly come to life, and for the first time, Arthur noticed how tired she looked. How old her brown eyes were set in that twenty-something face.

Mera told him once that he had the same look on his face at times.

"You might want to get those crow's feet looked at," Arthur joked as he reached out and tapped her nose, "Your five thousand years are starting to show."

It was a playful gesture, one she usually laughed at (Mera had taken to doing it too, making Diana smile brightly), but Arthur wasn't expecting the onslaught of tears. They ran like faucets from her lids down her cheeks and over his thumb as he wiped them away.

Diana apologized, her words blurring together until nothing but a siren's wail came bubbling from her chest.

Arthur wished he didn't understand how much pain came with being a god.

\----------

Victor and Barry watched as Diana went about tapping at her I-Pad, nails clicking against the screen as a black box sat on the table in front of her.

They had watched the box be delivered to the door, and they saw Diana's face harden as she opened the box.

"New antique?" Barry asked, "If you want help, we'll be happy to-"

"No!" Diana snapped. The silence hung heavy, Diana looking like a deer in the headlights once she actually realized who she snapped at. Scrubbing at her nose with the palm of her hand, Diana sighed.

That one sigh sounded so downtrodden. Like Diana was done being on this Earth.

Like she didn't want to be here.

"Di?" Barry tried again, raising an eyebrow as he shucked off his red sweatshirt.

Diana shook her head, holding up a hand, "I-I'm fine, Barry. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

Victor understood why. Clark had just passed. A good friend of hers, from what Barry tried to explain; Barry wasn't able to tell him much, having never met the man himself, so there really wasn't much to go on.

Barry nodded, "Nah, it's cool. I get it."

Diana looked at Barry suddenly as if he grew three heads right there. Victor didn't know either of the two for long, but what he did know was that Diana was a god.

He didn't like to think about what she was capable of doing if Barry didn't think before he spoke. Bruce liked to joke that Barry's mouth was as fast as his speed.

The surprise in Diana's eyes flickered away as soon as it had come, and she averted her eyes to the black box, the lid having been flipped open.

"I remember taking this photo," Diana said, holding the image carefully in her fingers: a sepia toned image, a group of men standing in the ruins of a battlefield.

In the center of the image was Diana herself, standing proud with her arm around one of the men.

"World War one, huh?" Barry said, narrowing his eyes to get a better look. Diana smiled fondly at the image, "Yes. Steve called it the war to end all wars. This was the battle of Velv."

Victor noticed the fondness with which she said his name. How she held him in the photo. Their eyes were bright and hopeful. Looking forward to another day, a day closer to victory.

Victor didn't see that light in Diana's eyes that often anymore.

"Have you ever been in love?"

Victor picked his head up, "Sorry?"

"I loved Clark like a brother," Diana didn't bother explaining, "He and I shared the same values. So did Steve."

Barry smartly kept his mouth shut.

"If you ever find yourself in love," Diana sighed, "hold on to them. Be sure to hold on tight and never let go because you never know when they'll be taken away."

They sat in silence for the next hour, Diana tapping away at her tablet while Barry fidgeted with the hem of his sweatshirt sleeve. Neither boy didn't know what to say. Didn't know how to react to how tired Diana looked, how much love she said this Steve's name with.

The hour passed. They sat with Diana as she cried. They sat with her as she cursed mankind, cursed the wonders the world offered. Diana sobbed as she yelled about the sheltered island she lived on, how Steve had shown her so much love and kindness only for someone named Ares to take away the only thing Diana ever found herself wanting.

Victor was glad he was not a god, for he didn't know if he would be able to live with the weight of the world and their follies on his shoulders as Diana did.


End file.
